The IRS finally looks at church/state separation
After Justice Sunday passed this year, some of us were wondering whether the Internal Revenue Service would ever investigate blatantly political churches like Two Rivers Baptist in Nashville.
Now, we learn that the IRS is indeed going after a church for political involvement: All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena may lose its tax-exempt status because its rector, J. Edwin Bacon, preached an anti-war sermon two days before the 2004 election.
(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)
Now, we learn that the IRS is indeed going after a church for political involvement: All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena may lose its tax-exempt status because its rector, J. Edwin Bacon, preached an anti-war sermon two days before the 2004 election.
(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)
posted by Diane at 7:47 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
It wasn't the current rector or any other current employee of the church that preached the anti-war, anti-poverty speech. A guest preacher, who had been rector 10 years earlier but had retired or taken some other priest job, delivered that sermon. This highlights the selective nature of the prosecution, since there is no evidence that the church itself knew the exact content of the guest's speech before it was delivered, and there is no standard operating procedure of reviewing and censoring speech of guests. This means the prosecution is on very thin ice legally, and is basically governmental barratry (bringing of groundless lawsuit, considered cause for prosecution and for disbarment).
NancyP
By
Anonymous, at
10:45 AM
That makes it even more interesting.
By
Diane, at
11:15 AM
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